


Ethan-Shaped Smash Pattern

by sunsetstargazer



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: Broken Bones, Car Accidents, Hurt/Comfort, broken ribs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28649055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetstargazer/pseuds/sunsetstargazer
Summary: Ethan really has a knack for getting himself into trouble. He just wanted to go for a jog but even that doesn't go right.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Ethan-Shaped Smash Pattern

**Author's Note:**

> A/N So, I wanted to do another Ethan gets into an accident for code black but hopefully better this time. Here we go, as usual I own nothing in this and get only general satisfaction from doing it. Might write more but nothing as of yet.

Ethan-shaped Smash Pattern

Ethan pushed his aching legs faster and faster, he had only been going for a few blocks from the hospital, but the lactic acid was building up faster than usual after a long hard shift. Ignoring the burning in his muscles he looked up and checked the lights for the crosswalk ahead of him and didn't break his stride as the green man flashed. Unfortunately, his luck seemed to be up that day because he only saw the car that blew through the light at the last second. His instincts took over at the last second and he jumped up onto the hood of the car and rolled up onto the windscreen. The impact stole his breath away and agony flared through left side, only made worse as the screech of the driver braking sounded, and he was thrown forwards off the car and slid along the asphalt shredding the skin on his right arm and his head made a sickening crunch when it finally collided with the road. By the time he came to a stop he was lying in the middle of the intersection completely vulnerable to cars. The last thing he saw as his vision faded was tires heading straight for him and the screeching of brakes all around him was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

"Hey! Sir, can you hear me?" an insistent voice broke through to Ethan underneath the layers of darkness that had him trapped. He swam slowly back towards consciousness having to fight at every step of the way, and finally managed to crack his eyes open to see a man kneeling beside him, bent over so that he could talk to Ethan where he was on his side almost face down in the asphalt. He jumped back slightly coming up onto his elbows but instantly regretted it as pain seemed to come flooding in from every bit of his body, he gingerly lowered himself back down and breathed through the waves of agony that ripped through him, slowly focussing into the left side of his ribcage and his arms and head.

"Easy, I did first aid training at work, and I know you need to stay still until the paramedics get here" the man tried to soothe him, and Ethan felt a hand on his shoulder trying to keep him from moving again.

"Is anyone injured?" Ethan asked his voice hoarse and breathy, and the man blinked in confusion.

"Don't worry about anyone else buddy I think you've got enough injuries on your own" the man tried to re-assure Ethan, but he knew he had to help out if he could, and so he rolled himself up into a seated position pushing off the man's hand.

"Woah, you need to stay down. You could have a spinal injury and need to wait for a doctor to say you're ok" the man tried to insist but was confused when Ethan only chuckled slightly.

"I am a doctor. Colonel Ethan Willis Trauma Surgeon at your service, now help me up so I can check if anyone needs my help" Ethan said holding out his hand to the man.

"Oh right, I'm Reece, but you really should take it easy whether you're a doctor or not" Reece said ignoring Ethan's hand and his attempt at sounding impressive while sat in the middle of the road with blood covering the side of his face and arm. Ethan huffed and pulled his aching body upright without Reece's help, stumbling to the side for a second but he caught himself on the door of a nearby car and stood up as straight as he could.

"Ok, who is in the worst condition?" Ethan asked looking pointedly at Reece when the other man opened his mouth clearly about to make a sarcastic remark.

"Most people just have cuts and bruises from what I could tell but the guy who hit you was passed out when I came over" Reece explained. Ethan twisted his head round and saw a young man slumped over the steering wheel of the car that bore a painful looking dent in it's hood and matching shattered windscreen, that made Ethan go light-headed for a second. He forced a deep breath in and went and pulled the door open, reaching in to check if the man had a pulse. He was relieved to feel a strong, steady beating under his fingers, but when he bent down, he saw blood dribbling slowly from the man's mouth and felt himself dropping into his clinical mode.

"Has anyone called 911 yet?" Ethan called out to the people milling around and received more than one affirmative response.

"Paramedics are on their way, should be here any minute" a teenager called back to Ethan with her phone pressed to her ear as she spoke, and Ethan nodded glad that help was on the way. He squatted down slowly, and began examining the man more thoroughly, as he heard the distant sound of sirens getting closer. Once he had established that the man had only bitten his tongue, and seemed to be post-ictal after a seizure, which is likely what caused the whole accident. Ethan made sure the man was stable and moved on, walking carefully around checking on the other people involved, who Reece had gathered at the side of the road. By the time he saw the ambulances and fire crew pulling up to the scene he had a good idea of who needed to go to hospital and had mentally tagged every patient he had seen. Reece had gone over to meet the ambulances, so Ethan finished off seeing the last few people while the paramedics approached.

"Ethan?!" Rox's voice called out over the sound of the sirens, sounding confused as she recognized Ethan from behind, after he had disappeared from the ambulance bay less than half an hour ago. Ethan paused for a second to collect himself before he turned to face the oncoming storm that was the Latino paramedic striding towards him.

"Rox, we've got one major over there and 7 minors who need stitches, but everyone is stable for now, it could have been a lot worse" Ethan explained hoping that Rox wouldn't mention the fact that his right arm was covered in road rash, he now had blood dripping down onto his neck and he was clearly in pain from the way he was hunched forwards.

"Right, there are other teams on their way who can help out, do you want to show me the major?" Rox asked but judging by the way her eyes lingered on the road rash and quickly slipped up and down his body, he knew his injuries were far from unnoticed.

"Of course, he's been out since I got to him and seems post-ictal, I suspect he had a seizure which caused him to blow the red light and cause the accident" Ethan explained guiding Rox over to the unconscious man. As they approached the car, Ethan caught the way that Rox's gaze lingered on the smashed in windscreen of the car. Rox surprised him when she directed two other paramedics to assist the man in the car before she turned back to Ethan with her hands on her hips.

"Ok where is the other patient? He has a suspiciously human shaped smash pattern in his windshield and whoever he hit needs to be checked over" Rox worried, glancing around at the other people and Ethan shifted awkwardly from foot to foot.

"Yeah, that would be a me shaped smash pattern unfortunately, he hit me while I was running, and I got thrown out into the intersection, and everyone swerved trying to avoid me because I ended up laying in the middle of the road" Ethan explained. Rox looked concerned, but far less shocked than Ethan had expected, and he realised she must have known as soon as she pulled up and saw him, the road rash was pretty obvious.

"Right come on. Let's get you into a rig and to the hospital. Have you got any neck or back pain?" Rox asked pulling him over to the back of the ambulance, ignoring his admittedly weak protests.

"No, I'm fine, just road rash and my head which I can clean up later" Ethan tried to insist, but when a passing person bumped into him, he had to stop and lean against the ambulance as spots overwhelmed his vision. He didn't hear Rox calling his name at first.

"Ethan, you look like you're pressure just bottomed out, from someone bumping into you so sit your ass in the back of this ambulance and let me have a look at you for a minute" Rox dragged him the last few feet and pushed him back to sit in the footwell of the ambulance. He sat while she checked his pupils and asked him if he knew who he was, where he was and who she was to see if he had a concussion.

"Ok what hurts other than your arm and head?" Rox asked.

"Just my ribs, I jumped before he hit me, so I spread the impact, going to feel like a living bruise for a while though" Ethan admitted finally giving in and allowing her to help him. She nodded and reached for the hem of his shirt, looking him in the eye to get consent before she pulled his top up, and he nodded grimly knowing it needed to happen.

Rox pulled up his shirt freezing when she saw the livid red bruising that covered the left side of his ribcage, she began feeling his ribs to try and determine if any were broken and felt several of them giving under her fingers but stopped quickly when she looked up at Ethan's face and saw any colour that he had in his face before was completely gone.

As Rox felt along his ribs Ethan could physically feel his ribs moving in ways that they never should and the pain that had been dull spiked to unbearable levels. He felt his heart hammering in his chest, but he didn't dare breathe deep enough to calm it down, and the spots returned to his vision. The combination of intense pain and a sudden dip in his blood pressure was too much for him and he slumped forwards, catching Rox off guard, who he felt make a desperate attempt to catch him, but she only succeeded in slowing his descent.

He lost track of what was going on for a moment, and when he came too again, he found himself lying on the floor with Rox kneeling next to him, and a paramedic he didn't recognize propping his legs up on the back of the ambulance.

"Sorry, I…" Ethan started but couldn't decide on an appropriate end to the sentence, so he just left it at that when Rox cut in.

"Don't be you're not the first to pass out on me, do you think you can get into the rig if we help you up. You need to get to Angels" Rox asked and Ethan nodded pulling his feet down and sitting up in one move, but the agony in his chest re-ignited and any further movement was halted as he hunched forward and tried to breathe slower but only managed quick shallow pants as he didn't want to make the pain worse.

"Deep breaths Ethan. Even if it hurts, or you'll pass out again" Rox tried to soothe him, and he managed to force himself back under control enough to stand when Rox and the other paramedic pulled him upright. They practically carried him into the ambulance and set him down on the gurney. Rox cut down the front of his shirt and pulled the fabric out of the way this time not touching his ribs but instead palpating his abdomen checking for any internal bleeding which luckily there didn't seem to be. The other paramedic stuck the leads for a heart monitor on and Ethan watched as the two worked efficiently getting him hooked up to monitors, putting an IV in his right elbow. Rox covered his grazed arm with gauze that ended up having to cover most of his arm and then got another piece of gauze which she pressed firmly against the wound on his head which hadn't stopped bleeding yet, causing him to hiss at the pain.

"Ok slightly tachy but not too bad, pressure's fine, but your pulse ox is low, are you having any trouble breathing?" Rox asked, and Ethan automatically went to shake his head and deny it, but when he actually thought about it, it was getting increasingly harder to get enough air in.

"Bit, getting harder" Ethan's voice came out much raspier than it had a few minutes ago, and within seconds he found a stethoscope being pressed against his chest at various points.

"Slightly diminished breath sounds on the left, Mark get up front and start driving we need to get him in" Rox instructed her partner who jumped out slamming the doors behind him and soon enough Ethan felt the ambulance begin to move. Rox pulled an oxygen mask out and put it over Ethan's mouth and nose to try and bring his pulse ox up but he could feel it getting harder and harder to breathe and within minutes he was left gasping desperately.

"Chest… tube" Ethan gasped out, but Rox looked stricken.

"We can't do chest tubes as paramedics, procedure is to get you in as quick as possible and keep decompressing with needles" Rox explained as she got out a needle. Ethan watched as she lined up the needle and plunged it into his chest. The needle released some of the pressure and he gulped in air desperately, but the pressure was building again within seconds and he knew he needed help and fast. Rox did another decompression but it was only buying them time and Ethan had never been so glad to see Leanne, Jesse and Mario's faces as they waited in the ambulance bay for the incoming patient. The doors of the ambulance opened just as Rox was doing another needle decompression, and Ethan could hear the other paramedic giving the rundown of what was going on. The three looked ready to jump into action when the doors opened but Rox delivered the one important piece of information the other paramedic had left out.

"It's Ethan" she half shouted over the chaos of the ambulance bay as she hopped down and pulled out the gurney with the doctor on it who was still gasping desperately.

"What?! Ethan, what happened?" Leanne began asking but was quickly cut off again by Rox since Ethan was in no position to talk right now.

"Pedestrian vs SUV. Tension pneumothorax on the left, that was the third needle decompression I've done but they're barely helping, he needs a chest tube now" Rox said spurring the other three back into action.

"Ok, centre stage now, we need chest x-ray, head and abdomen CT, CBC, and I want a FAST scan to check for any internal bleeding. I'll do the chest tube, Mario you do a full assessment we need to know about any other injuries" Leanne instructed as they raced the gurney through to centre stage. Ethan meanwhile was beginning to notice spots dancing across his vision as his chest felt like it was on fire and he couldn't seem to get any air in. The oxygen mask just wasn't helping, and he was beginning to panic by the time they got to centre stage.

He heard the countdown as they prepared to move him, but he still wasn't ready for the movement as he was lifted and transferred across to the hospital gurney. He groaned at the sharp pain as the jagged ends of his ribs rubbed against each other, and he just wanted to be left alone. There was no time to adjust to that though before hands were all over him and his running pants were being cut off him and he felt more leads being pressed against his chest. His eyes focussed in on Leanne as she listened to his chest with a stethoscope and her look of grim determination did nothing to reassure him before she took his arm by the wrist and pulled it up to lay it behind his head. He knew what was coming next and knew that it was going to save his life, but he still tried to pull away as he felt betadine being wiped over the side of his chest.

"No Ethan, stay still we need to do this" Leanne instructed him firmly, and he stopped trying to pull away. He barely even felt the scalpel slicing open his skin, but he definitely felt it as Leanne forced the plastic tube in between his ribs and into his chest. Suddenly the pressure in his chest vanished and he coughed hard tasting blood in his mouth, but he was so relieved that he could actually get air into his chest that he didn't care. It was only now as the blood rush in his head began to die down that he heard the blaring of alarms from behind him which were turning off one by one as his condition stabilised. He coughed a few more times before finally slowing down and taking deep breaths, his vision coming back into sharper focus and he saw Leanne still leaning over him, again with a stethoscope in her ears listening to his breathing.

"Ok, breath sounds equal, still some blood on the right but he's stable for now. Ethan can you hear me?" Leanne asked taking the stethoscope out and finally meeting Ethan's gaze. He nodded not trusting himself to speak just yet, but the oxygen mask was doing its job and helping him to get his oxygen saturation up quicker.

"Good, let's get that CT and chest x-ray done, and then Mario you can clean out the road rash and stitch up the head wound." Leanne instructed, as she pulled off her glasses, gown and gloves and walked off to check on other patients.


End file.
